Poverty in America Essay

Poverty in America

With the growing divide between the rich and the poor in a generally wealthy nation, it becomes interesting to know just what exactly entails poverty within the United States of America. For some, poverty runs along the lines of unsustainability, one in which an individual or groups thereof are incapable of providing necessities that sustain life. This is an absolute extreme of poverty. However, Duncan Lindsey and John Iceland further purport this definition of poverty, indicating that those who live in poverty might be much more than just the "ultimately poor." In their cases, there is an inequality that takes effect, which is the major cause of relative poverty in the United States.

In Iceland's case, poverty is "economic, or income, deprivation resulting in one's inability to sustain oneself." For the most part, this is true. However, there is a distinct division between "absolute poverty" and "relative poverty," two types of measurements of the poor that Iceland further discusses in his book Poverty in America: A Handbook.It is the relative poverty line that becomes controversial to toe, as it is defined differently according to geography as well as time. "Views of poverty vary over time and place. What it meant to be poor in the early twentieth century is not the same today. Nor is the standard of what constitutes poverty in the United States the same as that in the developing world" (Iceland). At the present time, the causes of poverty are mostly due -- not so much through a failing in the economic system -- man-made barriers.

This argument is further solidified in Lindsey's arguments about poverty in his book Child Poverty and Inequality: Securing a Better Future for America's Children, which details an inequality affecting children who grow up in poverty. Lindsey's main concern is the fact that the United States speaks highly of a promise to cultivate children to achieve a comfortable standard of living. This achievement, however, seems to be….....